Auckland, March 19 Skipper Mithali Raj, Yastika Bhatia and Harmanpreet Kaur combined to help India post 277/7 against Australia in a league match of the Women’s Cricket World Cup at the Eden Park on Saturday. Raj (68) and Bhatia (59) paced the Indian innings through the middle over, recording the third highest stand against Australia in the World Cups. Harmanpreet (57 not out) and Pooja Vastrakar (34) then put the finishing touches as they added 64 runs towards the end. After being sent into bat first, India suffered twin blows as teenage quick Darcie Brown, who returned with the figures of 3/30, reduced India to 28/2 after 6 overs. Brown had star India opener Smriti Mandhana (10) caught at slip by Meg Lanning in the fourth over, before Beth Mooney pulled down a contender for catch of the tournament when she held on to a difficult chance at gully to send Shafali Verma (12) packing. Raj and Bhatia put India back on track with their brilliant strike rotation and regular boundaries, including one maximum by the India skipper. Brown returned to remove Bhatia and soon Alana King got rid of Raj to dry up the runs. Australia fought back hard and India lost a couple of wickets in quick succession before Harmanpreet and Vastrakar took India to a challenging total.
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